Re: Observations: rm--help:Deleting bulk files using rm

[John Cowan]

The Wanderer scripsit:

> (Unrelated: wouldn't that technically be "an FAQ"? I've certainly never
> heard the term pronounced to rhyme with "lack", but invariably as the
> individual letters...)

Both pronunciations are in use (see
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/F/FAQ.html ) and both "a FAQ" and "an FAQ"
are found.

> The answer as I understand it would be something along the lines of
> "because find is orthogonal to rm and the output of a given program's
> --help should be concerned only with that program", and indeed there may
> be no better answer available. However, that does leave the fact that
> your typical user will not have any better idea of where to look for
> help with a program than its own built-in help - and indeed some of them
> may not even get that far.

This is a problem with the shell framework generally.  There is no
up-to-date resource on how to use the coreutils and their relatives
in cooperation.  The knowledge is passed chiefly through oral
tradition and through older books, and is IMHO in some danger of being
lost, which would be a Bad Thing, as it provides a style of
programming very different from typical monolithic frameworks.

-- 
In politics, obedience and support      John Cowan <address@hidden>
are the same thing.  --Hannah Arendt    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan